The most expensive TV series ever made

Game of Thrones

Boasting an estimated budget of US$60 million, the ten-episode first season of this epic fantasy series ranks as one of the most expensive ever. With seven expected seasons (one for each of the books in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series),Game of Thrones is shaping up to be one pricey, pricey series.

Terra Nova

Steven Spielberg and co. are practically throwing money at their new time-travel/dinosaur series, Terra Nova. The pilot is proving that producing visuals likeAvatar's for the small screen doesn't come cheap: its budget has overblown to almost US$20 million.

Lost

The Lost pilot cost a whopping US$14 million (mostly because of the cost of purchasing, shipping, and dressing the actual aircraft body used to represent the wreckage). They managed to reign in the budget, with subsequent episodes costing a mere (by comparison) US$4 million each.

Friends

The longer a show goes on, the more expensive it usually gets. Actors get raises, and in the case ofFriends, they got big ones. US network NBC famously forked out US$180 million for the final season. That's a whopping US$10 million per episode, the highest price ever paid for a 30-minute series in television history